Psychodynamic Therapy

My expertise in psychodynamic therapy is grounded in my deep understanding of how unconscious processes and past experiences influence present behavior and emotions. Through extensive training and practice, I help clients uncover and work through these underlying issues, leading to greater self-awareness and long-term healing.

En route to licensure, I trained at psychodynamic-oriented Airport Marina Counseling Service. For more than a decade, I have received weekly mentorship from renown Los Angeles-area psychologist Dr. Gary Penn.

Our early life experiences shape how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world around us. In therapy, I help individuals articulate the emotional truths and patterns that have influenced their lives. Everyone carries a unique story within them, and through understanding this narrative, we can unlock greater freedom and fulfillment in our adult lives. By exploring these connections, we can foster healthier relationships and a deeper sense of self.

Goals in psychodynamic therapy include acknowledgment of emotions, identifying patterns, improving interpersonal relationships, and recognizing/addressing avoidance. My goal in using this modality is for people to be able to gain insight into their current daily lives through self-reflection of their past.

I believe that our past creates the lens through which we see the world, including our relationship with those around us. Gaining insight into our patterns and these lenses can allow us greater choice and freedom in our present and future.

Psychodynamic therapy is focused on exploring how your past has impacted your present and future.

I practice Psychodynamic Therapy to help clients understand and resolve unconscious conflicts, patterns, and emotions that influence their current thoughts and behaviors. The approach is rooted in psychoanalytic theory and emphasizes self-awareness, emotional insight, and the exploration of relationships. We explore the unconscious, learn to understand past experiences, identify patterns, examine defense mechanisms, explore attachments, learn emotional expressions and address the present.

Psychodynamic therapy explores how behavior, motivation, and defenses are influenced by both unconscious and lived experience. These experiences often include family of origin, cultural identities, and the sociological realities of one's life; all of which shape one's constructs of self, other, and meaning. Contemporary psychodynamic therapy strives to facilitate relationship, understanding, and healing, while creating change in the present.

Psychodynamic therapy is a talk therapy that focuses on you relationship to your external and internal world. Focus is generally on what experiences led you to where you are and how those have contributed to your current distress. This type of therapy is especially well suited to helping people learn how to build better relationships and creating meaning in their lives.

Through this collaborative approach, I encourage the exploration of past and present emotions, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors and work with you to develop a deeper understanding of your early life experiences. Through this process, I believe individuals are able to develop meaningful insight into themselves and their lives.

The premise of psychodynamic therapy is making the unconscious (what is not readily in our awareness) conscious. The techniques of this modality help you gain insight into your inner processes and behaviors that you may not be consciously aware of. This process helps us become aware of patterns that occur in our behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and relationships. This theory also holds the belief that our past experiences greatly impact our current experiences and relationships.

I am trained in Psychodynamic Therapy. I will help you learn about how your past informs your present and how to untangle lifelong patterns.

The roles we play in life now can be connected to our our roles, values and beliefs we learned when we were younger. My role is to help illuminate your emotions and unhealthy patterns of behavior that would provide you with the keys to unlocking the root of your concerns. By having a deeper understanding of your internal world, we will help you to make decisions that would lead to a more successful life.

My primary training backgrounds are CBT and Psychodynamic counseling. I integrate these approaches to offer both stabilization and exploration of root causes for my clients. Additionally, I stay up-to-date with the latest research and theoretical orientations to offer each client an individual approach to counseling based on their needs.

I gently explore how early relationships and past experiences may be shaping how you feel and relate today. Together, we bring compassion and curiosity to old patterns—so you can understand yourself more deeply, soften self-judgment, and create space for new ways of being.

Psychodynamic therapy explores the patterns and cycles that have repeated in your life, including patterns of thoughts and feelings. Together, we work to understand these cycles that you may feel trapped by. With that understanding, a path to peace and freedom opens up through self-reflection and self-compassion.